Return from the Great Adventure

Last weekend, my son Sam and I had the lucky chance to have a share in my daughter's Great Adventure. The girls were ending their European Tour at a friends' house in Britany, so we all crammed into Terri and Robert's car and met them there for a few days.

Sitting round the breakfast table, they started to tell us their stories. Out poured a jumble of tales. As they talked, interrupting each other and often collapsing with laughter, the girls' vivacity and sense of friendship gave us a hint of the fun and excitement of their last few weeks.

I knew that Emily's adventures had been varied- my favourite text messege from her reads-

'Drank Absinthe, went to a Goth bar, was asked out by a sea captain and arrived back at our hostel at 6 in the morning. I like Berlin. xXx'

The mind boggles!

There were gentle moments too. Emily told of a happy hour spent in an English bookshop in the Jewish quarter of Budapest, drinking coffee and eating biscuits bought from a local market.

Becky reading

Some places moved them

Looking down into The White Room, Berlin

Others uplifted-

The John Lennon Wall,  Prague

They loved the sense of fun in Amsterdam-

And the famous Bolognese sauce in Bologna

They even made time for their music!

Rosa on the Ukulele



Emily busking in Lucca

So.... we're all back home and together again for a short while and then...

watch out world because they're on to

The Next Great Adventure!

 With thanks to photographs from the albums-

Rosa " When our time was spent on Trains"

Clare " Messy hair, dirty clothes"

Emily " A Very Big Adventure"

And to Terri and Robert for lifts, cocktails and hospitality...

A few days happy pottering

I can hardly call my wanderings an adventure when compared to my daughter's travels but I have had a very happy week.

First there was a weekend gathering of old school-friends in Suffolk-





Where the day started in sunshine and ended late as we sat out in the evening singing songs and toasting marshmallows around the fire.

On Sunday we went exploring and stayed in a lovely, old fashioned B&B

Which we found by accident, after visiting a local Church

 I loved this stained glass window

It was a busy, happy, sociable weekend.



I then took myself off to the West Country to spend a few days by myself.

I love the chance to wander at will, to explore just as the mood takes me and to indulge in some of my favourite activities- beachcombing, following winding lanes and 'treasure' hunting in car-boot sales and antique shops.

The view form my window

I pretended that this was a 'working holiday and have come home with a few interesting finds-

Old fashioned til pencil sharpener, pot, tape measure and thermometer

I'm especially pleased with this little French Thermometer, it's so quirky and it still works!

However, I still managed to spent hours peering into rock pools and collecting pebbles and shells-

I found that by visiting the beaches early in the morning  or in the evening and walking just that little bit further,  I could find solitude and space, even in this busiest of months-

August is not my favourite month for the countryside, I prefer the early summer or Autumn but I have seen some beautiful views, hidden down corners of Devonshire lanes.

I was so pleased to see the old fashioned corn stooks.

I'm back home now and feel very lucky to have had such a perfectly English summer holiday!